Rants on Cycling and on Life:
Photos of people and bicycles that pass in front of my camera

8.24.2009

What is a good age for a child to get a pocket knife?

What is a good age for a child to get a pocket knife?that is a riddle as old and as complex as "How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll Tootsie Pop?!?!?"

my older son Dean has been asking for a pocket knife for years...for years I postponed the request... giving Dean a pre-teen deadlinethen earlier this summer I overheard that some older boys on the block had been given pocket knives... although these other boys are nine and Dean is only eight... I figured that now was as good a time as anyunderstanding that knife comes with responsibilities and risksfeeling that giving such a set of responsibilities would also teach lessonsalso knowing that this introduction happens under my supervision rather than behind my back

all this while also accepting that there is one more issue...when older brother Dean gets something... that same something filters down to Grantthe now five year old Grant

just as Grant has seen movies that I would not allow Dean to watch at a certain age... Grant has seen them at a younger age because things trickle down from the older siblingGrant also gets certain privileges that Dean did not get at the same agea pocket knife is a prime example of one of these privileges

before purchasing the pocket knife there was a bit of talk about the knifethe pocket knife is a tool and not a toya tool with a potential for dangera tool that comes with a certain set of risksa tool that demands respect and responsibilityjust like daddy and his tools...daddy does not run around with his friends with a power saw in one hand and a cordless drill in the otherno... daddy brings the tools out when he needs them and then puts them away when he is done

the pocket knife is not any differentthis is a tool for certain tasks

there were simple "DOs and DON'Ts"basic common sense stuffmore reiterating that the pocket knife is a tool and not a toya potentially dangerous toya toy that carries with it a variety of risks

never is the knife to be used for sword playnever is the knife to be played with as if it is a weapon

it was decided... it was agreed... we would shop for pocket knives on our Colorado vacation

so... once in Colorado we did some shoppingthe plane had not even landed and the kids were already ready to get their pocket knivessmall children are not much for shoppingwhat they see is what they want and then they want to buywhat is in front of their eyes may erase what was already in their mindsso... I put a barrier on the purchase... we would get the knives in Grand Lakewhich gave us at least one afternoon of browsing in Boulderthe boys had an idea of what they wantedit seemed that both the boys wanted a Swiss Army Knife... or at least a knife with lots of tools and lots of optionsDean was sticking to the notion that his knife would have a sawwhile Grant wanted his knife to have a chain sawI was curious why neither one of them asked about the knife with a "blaster" or at least a laser(Han Solo in Star Wars uses a Blaster... there are no knives with blasters)

we browsed through a few storesto my pleasure there were a variety of stores with a variety of knivesmany of which were Swiss Army style knives for a less than Swiss Army priceinexpensive made sense as these knives may be lost in the shuffle sooner rather than later

as we browsed through the knives there was plenty of coachingI tried to make sure that the boys were calm and no one was jumping around bouncing off the otherI tried to make sure that the boys were careful handling the knivesthe boys were very good about listening and very good at respecting the riskswe went in a few stores in Boulder leaving without a knife

once in Grand Lake the pressure for purchase came on hardsure enough for Dean... the first knife with a saw became the first knife that we had to buycomparision shopping was not part of their planthe sooner the purchase the sooner they would have a knife in hand

in our search there was some social interplay with the people behind the counterthe majority of people behind the counter had stories of cutting themselves with a knifemost of them had a story about cutting themselves with their first knife within the first minutes of ownershipthen it happened... Grant was pulling out the blade of a knife and it snapped back and cut himeven the bargain bin knives are sharp enough to cut skinGrant had trumped themGrant had cut himself with the knife during the shopping processthis very minor injury brought up hesitationhesitation within Grant and hesitation within me

Grant grew resistant of the knife conceptDean bought his multi-tool Swiss Army style knife on the spot...after the passage of a short amount of time... just about the time it took the bleeding to stop Grant settled in on a more simple knife with less blades... a knife where the blades pulled back more easily and did not snap back as fast

over the next few days I monitored the boys and their knives there was some whittling... but really it was more the sharpening of the ends of sticksafter the sharpening of sticks I saw that the pleasure of owning a knife is really more a matter of owning and possessing the knife than actually using it sure the boys got great pleasure in opening my beer with the opener on Dean's knifebut really they got more pleasure and pride in showing others that they did in fact own a pocket knife

over the week in Colorado the boys carried their pocket knives with thembeing told not to walk and definitely not to run with their blades outthey were told to be aware of when someone had their knife open and to be careful in approaching themgiving them space if they were whittling or carving somethingin the car they got warnings to be careful with the knives out when we drove on bumpy roads there were warnings issued every second on every dangerI said "be careful" so often that my throat grew hoarse

the boys got their knives and since the first cut there have been no more injurieshopefully there will be no more injuriesI have not cut myself with a pocket knife since I was 28and well that may well be the last time I tried whittling down a stick

it is still not clear what is a good age for a child to get a pocket knifeall I know is there is no possible option to put the Genie back in the bottlemy boys have their pocket knivesnow it is my responsibility to guide them to use them safely

2 comments:

Mindy
said...

Cool post. Hope your boys enjoy their new knives with no incidents. It seems like it would be tough to know when to allow children to have potentially dangerous items. You seem like a very thoughtful parent.

I enjoy your blog (especially your photos) but also your posts are always interesting to read, as I'm also a mountain biker. I never leave comments and saw you mentioned that you don't get many comments, so I thought I'd take a moment and say hi from Brookings, OR. best regards,Mindy

About Me

if you want to know about me all you need to do is check out my BLOG
it is not the same everyday or everyweek
the focus changes and alters with my moods and with the events of the day and the events of my life